For exhibiting collage paintings and for some commentary about the work and about art.

Friday, March 2, 2012

About What It Takes

I got a free subscription to Architectural Digest some time ago and have reveled in taking pictorial tours through what must be some the most amazingly luxurious and exquisitely put together homes on the planet. The last issue I submerged in covered the homes of several celebrities: an actress, a musician and a designer. All names familiar to most households. I suppose that the attraction of a magazine like this is that it supplies the information you need to stage the backgrounds for your fantasies. Or maybe the decor itself is the fantasy. Or maybe you don’t fantasize. Whatever.

I had an epiphany when remembering some those rooms afterwards. Of my five (or more?) senses, the one that has brought me to my knees in emotional response is sight. I think in pictures and use pictures to think. This is not a very efficient nor is it always an effective operation, but — it’s what I have to work with. I would take great delight in being lodged in some of those impeccably put together rooms or baking in one of those designer kitchens outfitted with every utensil the heart could crave. Imagine a closet you could skateboard in that held shoes in careful rows and beautiful clothing for lavish affairs. And more. Much more. Ah, the comfort. Ah, the pleasure I would know in these lovely surroundings!

But could I be happier than I am now? Of course not. I believe that we have a certain capacity for feeling anything. I suppose when you go beyond your capacity for feeling physical pain, you pass out. And when emotional pain is too great, the brain has its ways. Must be the same for contentment. And right now, not only does my life feel complete, everything in place, but I can’t imagine being more content than I am.

I just made myself smile when I typed “everything in place”. The house has still not been put in order after the move and the studio has only just begun to be renovated. It has already run into its own set of complications and stumbling blocks. But my children are well, there’s food in the frig, and I am in good health. I am supported by friends and family. I look forward to the day when I will be back at work and have my neatly ordered little house to come back to in the evenings. It couldn’t get any better then that.

Actress Jodie Foster: I fantasize about having a manual job where I can come home at night, read a book and not feel responsible for what will happen the next day.

Thank you, Gordon, for sending me to investigate Peter Orlovsky. He seems from a totally different world than mine even though we were born in the same city at about the same time. Very glad to have provided you with that liberation.J.

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VIDEO: Joan Interviewed 2011

Interview video by Nutter Productions, Arcata, California

About This Blog

I had originally intended this blog to be a venue for exhibiting the small, very personal paintings that I make, the ones I don’t put on my web site. It has, however, evolved into something else. I like the thought and research that the blog posts entail and have allowed the writings to become my priority. I also enjoy the freedom to show work no longer in my possession and works in progress and photos of the studio process. This has led me to design another web site which I am currently at work on and which I will announce here when it is finished. My original web site, www.joangold.com, does not include the miniatures. The new site will be devoted to them and I will set it up to make direct sales. The other, original site, will still be the place to find my larger paintings which sell through my galleries and consultants. The rationale behind this is that the small sizes make it easy for me to do the shipping, the prices are too low to have a middle-man and I am increasingly impressed by how the internet can be used for sales of art (and anything else). Of course, there is also the ever-constant need to generate income while taking the least amount of time away from the studio.

About My Work

My work is about color. There is no hidden meaning, nothing to understand other than what the eye perceives.

I favor collage for its flexibility and for the variety of materials that can be utilized. I make my collage materials using a variety of media; acrylic paint is basic, as are, to a lesser degree, pastel, oil pastel, graphite, colored pencil and digital printing. Important aspects of the process are glazing with transparent paint layers and underpainting, both techniques that date from the fifteenth century.

The visual arts can be made to communicate joy, balance, harmony, beauty and serenity. These are qualities that I need to provide balance in my own life and which I offer to my viewer. In my studio, with my materials, I create a place of refuge, filled with color and light.

Marianne Moore said poetry "comes into and steadies the soul". Art can do that.

Joan Interviewed 2009

Joan interviewed in her studio by Charity Grella

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About Me

I am a painter and collage maker. I grew up In Brooklyn, New York, studied art at The Cooper Union and then left the country on a painting fellowship. I spent twenty-four years teaching in Venezuela and raised four fine children.I am now growing old, happily dedicated to my work, in Eureka, California.

About Titles

I choose titles to name my paintings as you would name a baby or a pet animal. They need to be identified so when the name is mentioned, the being or thing referred to comes to mind. I choose words that I like as I did in a series that had titles that ended with “ion”: Anticipation, Coronation, Innovation, Recreation, and Conception were some of the titles. I did not choose words like defamation, fumigation, cancelation or the like. For another group of paintings I used the names of flowers. Since I tend to produce large groups of works with a similar vision, there must be a great variety of names to work with. The names of stars that title some of the miniatures I am exhibiting here are particularly pleasing as they seem to me to be as abstract as the little paintings. They can be translated but I prefer to keep them as devoid of meaning as are my paintings. Stars are wonderful to look at and that is what I intend with my work.

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Bio

Brooklyn-born abstract painter Joan Gold received her art education at The Cooper Union and The Brooklyn Museum in New York City, and at the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Caracas, Venezuela.
Gold has had solo exhibitions at the Galeria Arte Vigente in Caracas, the Lisa Harris Gallery in Seattle, the Himovitz Gallery in Sacramento, the Atlee Gallery, the Piante Gallery and California State University’s First Street Gallery in Eureka, California, amongst others. Her paintings have been shown at the California Museum of Art in Santa Rosa, and the gallery of the Cooper Union in New York City.
In 1955 she was awarded a U.S. State Department fellowship to paint and study in Venezuela, where she remained for twenty four years. She retired as Associate Professor of the Universidad Metropolitana, and has lived and worked in Humboldt County, California since returning to the U.S.

Framing Notes

For paintings that do not fit a standard size frame you might want to consult a professional picture framer. Another option is an easy and inexpensive frame kit that can be purchased from American Frame. “Choose your frame, mat, glazing, etc, then submit your dimensions. An easy-to-assemble frame kit will be on its way”. They cut everything to your specifications and include simple instructions for assembly.